Sanyo announced that it has completed the third factory building of Nishikinohama Factory (Kaizuka City, Osaka), which will be the mother factory for the PV system business aspect of the company.

High-volume production of HIT solar cells is expected to begin in December 2010, once production equipment and necessary adjustments for high-volume construction is completed.

The solar cell production equipment at the new building will be capable of producing 135 MW annually. The overall production capacity of Nishikinohama Factory will be increased to more than 1.6 times than the current level.

Additionally, Shimane SANYO Electric (Unnan City, Shimane Prefecture), the producer of SANYO's HIT solar cells, plans to increase its annual production capacity to 220 MW (current rate is 130MW) by April 2010.

With these two factories, the combined production capacity of SANYO will be at 565 MW by March 2011, allowing the company to remain competitive in the ever expanding PV market.

[source: Sanyo]